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New CommCare Form Builder Improvements Released

March 3, 2017

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The CommCare team is excited to roll out some improvements to the CommCare form builder today.

The following changes simplify the way users interact with the form builder. We updated the following in the form builder: the top-level navigation, question properties, and multi-select checkboxes. Read below to learn more!

1) Top-level navigation

Here’s a blank form the current form builder:

And here’s a blank form in updated form builder:

We removed the question type buttons on top. Instead, you will click the “Add Question” button. This will bring up a new menu of question types:

We also collapsed the old “Tools” button in the top right. All tools have been moved to the bottom of the question tree menu:

2) Question properties

Here’s a new question in current form builder:

And here’s a new question in the new form builder:

We collapsed the “Logic,” “Media,” and “Advanced” sections. You can show or hide these sections using the new menu in the top right. The Form Builder will remember which sections you prefer to see. For example, once you show “Logic,” you will see the logic fields in all questions, forms, apps, and domains you view in the CommCare application builder, until you go back to the menu and hide the logic option:

In addition, the question id is now beneath the label. We no longer generate question IDs like “question1,” “question2,” etc. Instead, when you click to a different question, if you have not set an id, the form builder will generate one based on the label.

For example, let’s say you add a question with the label, “What is your name?” Your label is set, but you did not set an id before moving on to add another question. The CommCare form builder will now automatically assign an ID to that question. In this example, it would change to: “what_is_your_name.” Note: the question ID box looks greyed out, but you can still type in the box.

3) Multi-select and checkbox questions

Previously in the CommCare application builder, when you added a question it would populate two choices. You could then add more choices by clicking the “choice” button at the top of the screen:

In new CommCare form builder, when you add a question, it will not populate the choice options. You will click “Add Choice” link to add various choices:

If you have any questions regarding these updates to the CommCare form builder, please let us know. You can reach us by emailing: [email protected].